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Free debate

From
Tim Johnson

Barry Chapman, in his letter disputing the existence of free will, writes that the firing of a neuron “will have a cause and that cause will have another cause, all the way down” (29 June, p 31). But this is not a law of science. Events on the quantum scale obey the laws of probability not causality.

If living things can “harness chance”, as Peter Ulric Tse puts it (8 June, p 28), then they can move the odds a bit in favour of free will.

I read Tse’s take on free will with interest, but I don’t see how his ideas solve anything. His …